Disclaimer - MGM/Gekko/Double Secret own them.
This follows on from WMS.
These stories have taken me hostage and are forcing me to turn them into a series of some kind, completely against my will.
*
Telling Jacob off base was her idea. Frankly, Jack didn't like being so far away from the holding cells, which could quite comfortably hold (and protect) him for the duration of Jacob's visit - though he did like the idea of being so far away from the armoury.
But Carter...Sam did have a good point: as he no longer worked for the Air Force or the SGC, he didn't exactly have clearance to go on base anymore.
That was gonna take some adjusting, but he knew without a doubt that it was worth it.
So, telling Jacob at a bar was *his* idea. Yes, there was the likely outcome of some form of public humiliation, but,
a) it wasn't a bar he usually visited so he didn't know anyone, and
b) Jacob was much less likely to garrotte, zat, or stab him with witnesses around.
The problem was, not having access to the base meant he hadn't been able to meet and pick up Jacob with Sam after he arrived. Now in some ways this was good (no having to share a car ride with the man whose daughter he was having sex with), but in other ways it was very, very bad (waiting in the bar, imagining all the ways the man whose daughter he was having sex with was gonna make him suffer).
And being left alone where large quantities of alcohol were available?
Never a smart idea.
He'd been nervously tapping his right index finger against the table for some five minutes now, jumping every time the door to the bar opened; debating the merits of running out the back, and leaping over the garbage in the alleyway whenever he caught a glimpse of blonde hair or a bald head.
No. He closed his eyes. This was ridiculous. Yes, it was something a father never liked hearing, but Sam was a fully-grown woman (an extremely *well* grown woman), who was entirely free to make her own choices without her father's interference.
The problem wasn't Jacob.
The problem was him. He suspected he wasn't just nervous about Jacob's reaction; he was also trying to deal with his own fears and doubts about *finally* being in a *relationship* with *her*.
And then Jacob walked in.
Oh yeah: he was definitely kidding himself.
It was *entirely* about Jacob's reaction.
Immediately standing up to attention, and for once in his life almost forgetting entirely that Sam was there, Jack waited for Jacob to make the first move.
He didn't seem to think anything was amiss, moving towards the table, extending his arm across it and smiling brightly. "Jack, good to see you."
Damn. He was kinda hoping Sam had taken the opportunity to tell him everything herself during the ride here.
O-kay, he just had to act normally.
He shook Jacob's hand brusquely. "General."
Damn.
Why didn't he just go the whole hog and salute him?
Sam intervened, taking off her jacket (ooo, leather...no, wait, her dad's right *there*) and slipping it across the back of the chair next to his. "You two sit down; I'll get some drinks."
Given the events of the last couple of weeks, normal behaviour for her then might have been to kiss him on the cheek, maybe the lips. She did neither, instead nodding at him before nodding obviously towards Jacob.
Oh come on, he was supposed to do this alone? What about team work?
Sighing, he waited until Jacob began to sit before doing the same himself. He stared at the table once he was down, wondering how-
"So Jack, what the hell's going on?"
His head shot up, panic clamping his chest. "What? Sir?" Maybe she *had* told him, and had just been letting him know that he should talk about it with him.
"The big news! I mean...what the hell were you thinking?"
Thinking? "I was never very big on thinking, sir. You should know that,"
"True," Jacob shrugged. "I can't think of any other reason why you'd resign."
Ohhhhh. He should have known it was too good to be true. "Well, General," He shifted in his chair, failing to get comfortable. He doubted he'd get comfortable again for a long time. "There may be, ah," Finding it impossible to meet Jacob's gaze, he instead focused on the collar of the shirt he'd been provided with. "*One* good reason."
"And what's that?"
Carter plonked three glasses down onto of the table. "Back!"
Crap.
Slouching back in his chair, Jack ran a shaky hand over his face. This was almost causing more emotional turmoil than all those years of not being able to touch her.
"So what are you guys discussing?" She asked, sitting in the chair next to his.
Jack leant away. "Oh, just...stuff."
Jacob nodded, picking up his beer. "Jack was just telling me why he resigned. Seeing as I couldn't get anything out of *you* in the car," He glared at her. "I figured I should just head to the source."
Hesitating, Jack glanced towards Sam. She'd been teasing him earlier, making him think he'd have to go through this alone, but as she smiled at him he knew: she was there.
It was enough to keep talking. "Well you see, General,"
"Okay, stop." Jacob interrupted.
This wasn't in the plan. "Stop?"
"Yes, stop. What's all this 'General' and 'sir' business? You haven't called me that almost since we first met."
Typical. Trust him to pick up on that. "Uh sorry, Jake." Crap. That one moment of revelation was gone. He looked helplessly towards Sam.
She nodded once, then faced her father. "Dad, there's something that I - we - need to tell you."
Frowning, Jacob placed his beer back on the table. "What is it?"
Emboldened by Sam actually saying something, Jack spluttered it out, alternatively looking between Sam, Jacob, and nothing at all. "I have feelings...romantic feelings...for your daughter." He immediately shut his eyes, waiting for the fires of hell to rain down upon him...hey, wait a minute...
Jacob hadn't said anything. No outraged scream, no "WHAT?!", no citing of regulations (which weren't an issue anymore, but that really wasn't the point).
Taking a deep breath, Jack cracked open one eyelid.
Jacob seemed utterly bemused. "And?"
The other eyelid cracked open, and Jack's head felt like doing much the same. "You *knew*?" He couldn't believe this!
"Of course I know, Jack. I have known you for...what? Six years now? And even if I hadn't figured it out, or been given *heavy* clues by Anise, bear in mind that I've got a symbiote in my head that's been around for hundreds of years. He tends to pick up on this stuff."
Jack was still doing his goldfish impression. "You knew? And you don't *mind*?"
"I didn't say that," He argued. "When I first realised...well, I wasn't happy. At all. But I saw the way you worked together; the way you handled the job, and I knew you'd never do anything stupid. You have too much respect for Sam and George, if nothing else. Though I have to say," He flicked his gaze towards his daughter, then back towards a stunned Jack. "I'm a little surprised you're able to talk about it so openly in front of Sam, even noooowww-oh!"
There it was.
When the reason Jack had resigned began to sink in.
And then Sam spoke. "It's not a one-way thing, Dad. I love him too."
Jack looked at her so fast his head nearly spun off his neck.
It was the first time she'd actually said it. Ever. "You do?" He knew there was *something* of course, and while he knew exactly how he felt about her, she was always something of a mystery.
"What?" She asked, arching an eyebrow. "The general adoration wasn't a give away?"
How did she manage just to arch one...adoration? "You love me?"
"Well what else did you think?"
"I don't know!" He gestured towards her. "That you...really, really like me?"
Grinning, she shook her head and leant towards him. "Okay, we seriously have to do something about your self-esteem issues."
"Having you around certainly helps,"
"It does?"
"Have you looked at yourself lately? Not that I just want you for your body you understand, but you are *seriously*-"
Someone cleared their throat.
Oh.
Yeah.
Jacob.
Right.
Oops.
Amazing how she could do that to him.
He didn't turn away from her, figuring it was probably safer that way. "Do you think now would be a good time to slink beneath the table and crawl my way out of here?"
"You realise he can hear everything we're saying, right?"
"Oh yeah,"
"Good. Just making sure."
Jack finally moved his gaze. Away from her face, around the bar (passing over the guy who seemed to have one really big or two medium-sized stomachs), and reaching Jacob to see...
Oh yeah. There was the glare.
"So," Jack shifted again, looking away. "Let me get this straight. You didn't mind - *that* much, I hasten to add - when you knew how I felt about her before. But now, even though I'm not her commanding officer anymore so that's *so* not an issue, and we're free to pursue whatever we want, you have a problem with it?"
The glare didn't let up. "That depends."
"On what?"
Thankfully, Sam intervened again. "Dad, don't you *dare* ask him if we're having sex or not. Do you know how old I am? Do you know how ridiculous it is you even asking that question?"
Thank God for that Carter logic. Well, that Sam Carter logic.
"I wasn't going to say that at all," Jacob defended.
"Really?" She wasn't buying it.
Jack sat back and enjoyed the show.
"Really. I was going to ask Jack when he's going to make an honest woman out of you."
So much for enjoying the show.
"Dad!"
"Uh, Jacob..."
"Well what do you want from me? You take away the sex thing, and this is all I have left. It's your own fault. Look," Turning his attention away from her, he leant an elbow against the table and started talking to Jack. "You probably know, *all too well*, that I wasn't a very good father when Sammie was younger. Wasn't really there for her,"
"And she's sitting right *here*," Carter complained.
Jacob ignored her. "And I never really got to do all that 'scaring the boyfriend' crap you get to do when your daughter's a teenager."
Jack was beginning to understand. He hoped. "So you're...making up for lost time."
"Exactly. It's just bad luck on your part that you happen to be the only person she's seen seriously since we reconciled. If she were with Jonas I'd be doing just the same thing."
Oh, *ew*. "Thanks for the imagery there, Jake." That grin surfaced. "So what now? You torture, humiliate and ridicule me, making my life a living hell?"
He nodded. "Pretty much."
But most importantly... "And we stay together. Me and Sam. Sam and me."
"I don't think that really has anything to do with me. Do you?"
"No. It doesn't." It was Carter who'd responded, grabbing Jack's chin and pulling his face around to see hers, until she placed a brief kiss against his lips. When she pulled away, she regarded him with that arched eyebrow again. "That was for ignoring me."
Hmm. "I really should ignore you on a regular basi-"
She kissed him again.
Fully.
In the bar.
On the mouth.
Right in front of her dad.
Oh he was *so* dead.
And he didn't care.
~FINIS